Ignorance is bliss for mindless boo-boys
Monday October 20 2008
BBBOOOOOOOOOOOO. Looks stupid, doesn't it. Now try saying it out loud. It sounds stupid too.
But get a few hundred grown men screaming it together, throw in a footballer who has played a poor pass or a manager not bowing to popular opinion and now it's called expressing an opinion.
Last week the refrain was heard mercifully few times around Croke Park, but given the growing frenzy of Andy Reid's situation, there could be a few people wanting to let Giovanni Trapattoni know what they think of his decisions.
The 'boo-boys' must be delighted to now have a title to justify their existence. Against Kazakhstan, Ashley Cole suffered at their mouths following an errant pass which led to a goal. This was such an affront to those supporters at Wembley that they let Cole know of his mistake every time he touched the ball.
Sympathy
Cole, the bloke who "nearly crashed his car" when offered a mere £55,000-a-week, doesn't deserve sympathy. It's the supporters who think their contributions will make any difference that we should feel sorry for.
One can imagine a post-match conversation with these people. "Yeah, I gave Cole a right good booing after that pass."
"Fair play mate, I tried but it was taking too much out of me after five minutes."
"You need to get some more practice in next weekend."
The scary part is that, in grounds throughout Britain and Ireland, they will. There's a growing phenomenon among home supporters disgruntled at their team's performance to let it all out at either half or full-time. It has become a sort of Pavlov response to a struggling team -- losing at home + referee's whistle = booing.
There's a bizarre level of expectation among some that their teams are as good as they imagine them to be. Last season Derby County won one match -- out of 38 -- yet when Arsenal arrived at Pride Park and only led 2-1 at half-time there were still sections of the crowd voicing their displeasure. What exactly were their expectations going into the game? Did they truly believe that with Darren Moore marking Emmanuel Adebayor their team could be, as the song suggests, "by far the greatest team the world has ever seen."
Such a small deficit at half-time should have been cause for wild celebration, but the correlation of noise to the level of knowledge tends to go in opposite directions.
There's a spontaneity about sport which makes angry or frustrated response unavoidable and this adds to the atmosphere. A dive or mistimed tackle from a player at an opposition ground provokes an immediately hostile response and if this passion was lost, it would greatly reduce the spectacle. The problem is how seamlessly passion and ignorance can be traded.
"I'm entitled to my opinion" or "it's a free country" are generally the last refuges of those on the path to admitting they are wrong.
Buying a ticket with hard-earned money (those who justify this always have 'hard-earned' money), apparently entitles them to check their brain in at the turnstiles along with their ticket.
Next Saturday, James McCarthy will be part of the Hamilton team travelling to Ibrox to play Rangers and, as Aiden McGeady did, he will receive his share of abuse. In the eyes of these particular supporters, such booing of a 17-year-old is justified because he has let Scotland down.
Wildly
These are the same supporters that will celebrate wildly if Kris Boyd scores just one week after walking out on the Scotland squad.
But before the moral high-horse goes riding through Ireland, looking down its nose at those at Ibrox or Wembley, the names of Shota Arveladze, Kevin Muscat and Tony Vidmar should be recalled.
All played in Dublin in recent years at a time when their other jersey was the blue of Rangers. All three were booed by, admittedly, a small minority of supporters who felt they were entitled to their opinion.
Unfortunately when they express it, it's the rest of us who have to listen.
- Aidan O'Hara
